The Romantic Age (1798-1830)

1. HISTORY OF ENGLISH
LITERATURE
The Romantic
Age
(1798-1830)
Dr. Preeti
Assistant Professor in English
Awadhoot Bhagawan Ram P.G.
College

2. Romanticism
(the Romantic Movement),
a literary, artistic and
intellectual movement, and
profound shift in sensibility,
which took place in Britain and
throughout Europe from
1770-1848.

3. The Romantic Age
began in 1798 when
William
Wordsworth and
Samuel Taylor
published
Lyrical Ballads,
and ended in 1832
when Walter Scott
died.

4. Definition
 “literature depicting emotional matter in an
imaginative form…….”
 “liberalism in literature…….“
Imagination, emotion and freedom are certainly
the focal points of romanticism.
Romanticism stresses on self-expression and
individual uniqueness.

5. Romanticism saw a shift from
CLASSICALAGE
 faith in reason
 interest in
urban society
 public,
impersonal
poetry
 concern with
the scientific
and mundane
ROMANTIC AGE
 faith in the senses,
feelings &
imagination
 interest in the rural
and natural
 subjective poetry
 interest in the
mysterious and
infinite.

6. Romanticism includes……
Subjectivity and
an emphasis on
individualism
 Spontaneity
 Freedom from
rules Devotion is
superior to beauty
Solitary life
 Imagination is
superior to reason
 Love of and worship
of nature
 Fascination with the
past, especially the
myths and
mysticism of the
middle ages.

7. Romanticism is characterized by :
 Imagination
 Idealism
 Intuition
 Inspiration
 Individuality

8. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ROMANTIC ERA
1.Common Man and Childhood over Urban
Sophistication
Romantics believed in the natural goodness of
humans, which is hindered by the urban life of
civilization. They believed that the savage is
noble, childhood is good and the emotions
inspired by both beliefs causes the heart to soar.
2.Emotions over Reason
Romantics believed that knowledge is gained
through intuition rather than deduction. This is
best summed up by Wordsworth who stated that
“all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings.”

9. 3. Nature over Artificial
Romantics stressed the awe of nature in art and
language and the experience of sublimity
through a connection with nature. Romantics
rejected the ideas of the industrial revolution .
4. The Individual over Society
Romantics often elevated the achievements of
the misunderstood, heroic individual outcast.
5. Imagination over Logic
Romantics legitimized the individual imagination
as a critical authority.

10. COMMON FEATURES OF ROMANTIC
POETRY
 The romantics cultivated imaginative freedom;
 Used a variety of poetic forms;
 Tended to express the feelings of man in
solitude as opposed to those of man in society;
 All the poets, except Blake, described the
natural environment;
 They tended to use language with more
freedom and informality than the 18th century
poets;

11.  They tended to use language with more
freedom and informality than the 18th
century poets;
 They were profoundly affected by the great
historical fact of the French Revolution;
 The romantic poets were deeply interested
both in life and art;
 The most interesting poems were about
writing poetry;

12. ROMANTIC
ATTITUDES:
•SENSIBILITY
•MELANCHOLY
•INDIVIDUALISM
•REBELLIOUSNESS

13. THE FIRST GENERATION
OF ROMANTIC POETS:
•W. BLAKE (1757 – 1827)
•W.WORDSWORTH (1770- 1850)
•S.T. COLERIDGE (1772 - 1834)

14. WILLIAM BLAKE
Born : 28 November 1757
London, England
Died : 12 August 1827
(aged 69) London, England
Occupation:Poet, Painter,
Printmaker
Genres: Visionary Poetry
Literary movement:
Romanticism
Notable work: Songs of Innocence
and of Experience, The Marriage of
Heaven and Hell, The Four Zoas,
Jerusalem, Milton

15. William Wordsworth
Born: 7 April 1770 Cockermouth ,
United Kingdom
Died: 23 April 1850 Rydal Mount
Occupation: Poet
Generes: Poetry
Literary Movement: Romanticism
Notable Work: Lyrical Ballads( Coleridge),
Tintern Abbey, The Prelude

16. SAMUEL TAYLOR
COLERIDGE
Born: 21 October
1772 Ottery St. Mary,
Devon, England
Died : 25 July 1834
(aged 61) Highgate,
England
Occupation: Poet,
critic, philosopher
Literary movement :
Romanticism

17. •BYRON (1757 – 1827)
•KEATS (1770 - 1850)
•PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1792 - 1822)
THE SECOND GENERATION OF ROMANTIC
POETS:

18. PERCY BYSSHE
SHELLEY
,
Born : 4 August 1792 Field Place,
Horsham Sussex, England
Died : 8 July 1822 (aged 29)Lerici,
Kingdom of Sardinia(now Italy)
Occupation : Poet, dramatist, essayist,
novelist
Literary movement : Romanticism

19. JOHN
KEATSBorn 31 October 1795
Moorgate, London,
England
Died 23 February 1821
(aged 25)
Rome, Papal States
Occupation Poet
Alma mater King's College,
London
Literary
movement
Romanticism

20. LORD
BYRON
Born : George Gordon Byron 22 January 1788
London
Died : 19 April 1824 (aged 36) Missolonghi,
Ottoman Empire (Greece)
Occupation : Poet, politician
Nationality : English
Literary movement : Romanticism

21. LITERARY
CRITICISM Literary critics
became the arbiters
of taste
 Debate over the
artistic value as well
as the utilitarian value
of critical literature
 1802: Edinburgh
Review
 1809: Quarterly
Review
William Hazlitt
Charles Lamb
Thomas DeQuincy
Samuel Taylor

22. HISTORICA
L NOVELS
 Novels that reconstruct a
past age, often when two
cultures are in conflict
 Fictional characters
interact with with
historical figures in actual
events
 Sir Walter Scott
(1771- 1832) is
considered the father of
the historical novel: The
Waverly Novels (1814-
1819) and
Ivanhoe (1819)

23. JANE AUSTEN AND
THE NOVEL OF
MANNERS Novels dominated by the
customs, manners,
conventional behavior and
habits of a particular social
class
 Often concerned with
courtship and marriage
 Realistic and sometimes
satiric
 Focus on domestic society
rather than the larger
world

24. To say the word
Romanticism is to say
modern art - that is,
intimacy, spirituality, color,
aspiration towards the
infinite, expressed by every
means available to the arts.

25. Poetry is the
spontaneous overflow
of powerful feelings:
it takes its origin
from emotion
recollected in
tranquility.”-
“Beauty is truth,
truth beauty,’ – that
is all ye know on
earth, and all ye need
to know. “- Keats